Susanna Coffey @ Jared Melberg Gallery

Susanna Coffey
Plantings and Cuttings

September 19 - October 31, 2009


Susanna Coffey’s small-scale paintings of flowers are carefully and thoughtfully presented as either single blooms, cuttings of branches and vines or images of living foliage. The artist says, This exhibition is a special one for me...The work I am more known for is a kind of portraiture that is loaded with social and political content. These pictures are of a different kind, very intimate, direct and for me, private. I am trying to make beauty from beauty.

An internationally recognized artist, Coffey received a BFA from the University of Connecticut in 1977 and a MFA from the Yale School of Art in 1982. Coffey is a professor of painting at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She divides her time between Chicago and New York City.

Erik Gonzalez

Opening reception is Thursday, September 10, from 6 to 8 pm.
ERIK GONZALEZ
Diptychs
September 10 – October 31, 2009

Paint the Town (diptych detail), 2009, Oil on canvas/Oil on mirror, 47 x 56 inches/12 x 12 inches, EG-1002


LINK TO SHOW
Massimo Audiello is pleased to announce his first New York solo show of Erik Gonzalez. The exhibition will open on Thursday, September 10 and run through Saturday, October 31, 2009. The opening reception is Thursday, September 10, from 6 to 8 pm.

At first glance, the work by Erik Gonzalez seems to be interested in the practice of making simply pure abstract paintings. The search for a vocabulary seems to be at the core of this body of work.

Elements are taken from language, graffiti, logos, different kinds of textures, monochromatic backgrounds, sometimes from Pop imagery and other times from more sophisticated art historical references such as minimal abstraction. The elements all converge in the creation of a variegated and exciting body of work, where the meaning and possibilities of abstraction are speculated.

At a second glance, Gonzalez’s work will reveal a kind of intrusive alterego, a small painting accompanying laterally the main large work. Those small paintings stand curiously next to the big ones, bound by a symbiotic relationship, as some kind of a window on the main painting’s soul. They reflect, question and doubt and comment on the painting’s identity, creating a stimulating dialogue were all possibilities seem to be taken into account.

The painting and its double reflect the ambiguity and complexity of identity, not in a cubist form, but as a more straightforward starring at one’s self. Abstraction is in this way commented on and perversely substituted by a representation verging on the surreal. This psychological game adds a new twist to the endless game of painting, while reflecting a part of how painters work.

For more information, please contact the gallery at:

MASSIMO AUDIELLO
526 West 26th Street
No. 519
USA- New York, NY 10001
212.675.9082 TEL
212.675.8680 FAX
www.massimoaudiello.com

Susanna Coffey

In the Top 10

Bonnie Collura

one of my top three professors that made me what I am today.
that's funny, I can only think of her and one more right now.

Erik Gonzalez

Erik Gonzalez

Erik, you crazy, rockin the chevron I think, is that right, chevron?

Erik Gonzalez

Erik is at Yale now, getting his MFA. Here's some studio shots!